4 ms·

A lot of good points in here, but personally I hate it when bloggers remove the publish date. Really irks me, and reduces my confidence in the content.

joshkaufman 12y ago
Patrick's advice about taking dates off is spot-on for optimizing conversion rates on key pages. I've taken dates off of my most important evergreen resources. There's sometimes a happy medium - you can deemphasize the date with CSS or by putting it at the bottom of the post. Here's an example of a blog-style post on my site: http://joshkaufman.net/malinvestment/ http://joshkaufman.net/malinvestment/ People who want to find the date can find the date. People who aren't looking for it aren't likely to see it.
- josephjrobison 12y ago
  What do you think of the idea of adding an "Update" intro text to some blog posts that aren't necessarily evergreen resources, but aren't dated sensitive posts. Such as if you wrote a post in May 2012, then in May 2014 adding a quick intro saying "Updated May 2014: I've added x, xy, and xyz, but this post is still relevant today." or something of the like?
tptacek 12y ago
Lots of people say that removing prominent datelines "reduces their confidence in the content", but can you marshal any evidence for your observed preferences matching this stated preference? Because I don't think it's true in practice at all. I think people form opinions about content based on the content unless you beg them to do it some other way, for instance by calling your content a "blog post".
- pknight 12y ago
  It's pretty simple though, if you're researching a topic you need to be able to assess the chronology of a post. Without it the content becomes less reliable. Now you have to second guess the content to know whether it's still relevant/current and where it slots into other resources. Where's proof that losing the date improves ROI/readership/etc. Let's just be honest about our content.
  - tptacek 12y ago
    Calling a piece of writing a "tutorial" and putting it in an index of "tutorials" and leaving it out of ones "blog archive" isn't dishonest; neither, for that matter, is not putting a prominent dateline on it. Bluntly: you didn't pay for a dateline and I don't owe it to you.
    - pknight 12y ago
      You are joking I hope? >> you didn't pay for a dateline and I don't owe it to you. Supplying date meta is as basic as having contrast between your font and background and having font set at a legible size. "Because you don't owe it to a reader" does not really make for sound reasoning if you ask me. The nomenclature of content is mostly irrelevant to this. It doesn't matter what you call it, an essay, article or tutorial. Still benefits from date meta. Case in point: any luck finding tutorials for say, a recent version of backbone.js? You have to look hard as most of are out of date and even if they are up to date, it's hard to tell (knowing when a piece of content has been updated is just as important). Hiding the date meta just makes it all the harder and it's reader-hostile. If you are writing about a topic, it's to benefit a person looking into a topic. I think some people are missing the point of creating the content in the first place.
      - tptacek 12y ago
        No, I'm not joking.
        pknight 12y ago
        Care to provide some logic instead of downvoting all my comments?
        tptacek 12y ago
        I haven't downvoted any of your comments.
        ihaveqvestion 12y ago

joshkaufman 12y ago

Patrick's advice about taking dates off is spot-on for optimizing conversion rates on key pages. I've taken dates off of my most important evergreen resources. There's sometimes a happy medium - you can deemphasize the date with CSS or by putting it at the bottom of the post. Here's an example of a blog-style post on my site: http://joshkaufman.net/malinvestment/ http://joshkaufman.net/malinvestment/ People who want to find the date can find the date. People who aren't looking for it aren't likely to see it.

josephjrobison 12y ago
What do you think of the idea of adding an "Update" intro text to some blog posts that aren't necessarily evergreen resources, but aren't dated sensitive posts. Such as if you wrote a post in May 2012, then in May 2014 adding a quick intro saying "Updated May 2014: I've added x, xy, and xyz, but this post is still relevant today." or something of the like?

tptacek 12y ago

Lots of people say that removing prominent datelines "reduces their confidence in the content", but can you marshal any evidence for your observed preferences matching this stated preference? Because I don't think it's true in practice at all. I think people form opinions about content based on the content unless you beg them to do it some other way, for instance by calling your content a "blog post".

pknight 12y ago
It's pretty simple though, if you're researching a topic you need to be able to assess the chronology of a post. Without it the content becomes less reliable. Now you have to second guess the content to know whether it's still relevant/current and where it slots into other resources. Where's proof that losing the date improves ROI/readership/etc. Let's just be honest about our content.
- tptacek 12y ago
  Calling a piece of writing a "tutorial" and putting it in an index of "tutorials" and leaving it out of ones "blog archive" isn't dishonest; neither, for that matter, is not putting a prominent dateline on it. Bluntly: you didn't pay for a dateline and I don't owe it to you.
  - pknight 12y ago
    You are joking I hope? >> you didn't pay for a dateline and I don't owe it to you. Supplying date meta is as basic as having contrast between your font and background and having font set at a legible size. "Because you don't owe it to a reader" does not really make for sound reasoning if you ask me. The nomenclature of content is mostly irrelevant to this. It doesn't matter what you call it, an essay, article or tutorial. Still benefits from date meta. Case in point: any luck finding tutorials for say, a recent version of backbone.js? You have to look hard as most of are out of date and even if they are up to date, it's hard to tell (knowing when a piece of content has been updated is just as important). Hiding the date meta just makes it all the harder and it's reader-hostile. If you are writing about a topic, it's to benefit a person looking into a topic. I think some people are missing the point of creating the content in the first place.
    - tptacek 12y ago
      No, I'm not joking.
      - pknight 12y ago
        Care to provide some logic instead of downvoting all my comments?
        tptacek 12y ago
        I haven't downvoted any of your comments.
        ihaveqvestion 12y ago